picked up the remote control from the table and forced his gaze away from the closed door and thin glow of light from beneath it. Punching the power button, he flipped channels until he found a news station. Something to do. Something to do to help block the screeching thoughts inside his head. Whirring thoughts that consisted of her. Darby, Darby, Darby.
He surfed for a local news channel. He always paid close attention to the news. The latest crime might be more than it appeared. It might be Cyprian. Although he doubted the alpha was doing too much damage at the moment. He was in flight mode now.
He shifted on the motel’s uncomfortable chair. Usually he acquired better accommodations for himself, where he could at least get a good bed, but they were in the middle of nowhere, and this was the first motel they’d come across. Distant trucks roared past on the highway outside.
Splashing noises drifted from the small bathroom, mingling with the busy sounds from outside. The child whimpered on the bed. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend he was someone else, somewhere else. Just an ordinary man with a family. A kid napping on the bed, his wife washing up in the bathroom.
He squeezed his eyes in a tight blink and scrubbed his hands over his face—hard. He didn’t want that. Didn’t need those images imprinted on him. He’d only ever wanted one thing and it wasn’t that. Not that crazy fantasy.
The sound of water stopped and she reemerged. She looked at him only fleetingly, her gaze avoiding his eyes, skimming him as she rubbed her hands dry on a hand towel. Her attention went to Aimee the precise moment the girl’s small body arched off the bed, as though she was trying to escape from something inside her. And she was. Niklas knew that for a certainty. The memory of his Initiation might be foggy, but he remembered the pain, the misery. The death of himself.
“Shhh,” Darby soothed, dropping down on the bed beside Aimee.
Almost in answer, Aimee whimpered and tossed her head side to side on the pillow. She cried out gibberish but one word rang loud and clear. Monsters.
Darby smoothed her hand over her brow and spoke as if the child could hear her. “No monsters are going to get you.”
Niklas snorted, noticing she didn’t deny the existence of those monsters.
She continued, “You have me and Niklas … and he’s really strong. Almost as strong as they are.”
Almost, Niklas thought with a wry twist of his lips. He fought back a bitter laugh. He was almost a monster.
“Trust us, baby. We’re going to get you to your grandmother’s. You’ll be safe there.”
At this promise, Niklas bit back a curse and quietly left the motel room. He strode through the cutting bite of wind, preferring the cold to staying inside the small motel room, listening to Darby make promises she had no right to make.
Still sheltered on the covered walk, he stopped in front of his Hummer. Snow already gathered on the hood. He cast a glance up at the sky, hoping the weather let up and didn’t slow them down tomorrow. In the night beyond, he could make out the vast snow-covered mountains.
With any luck, they’d reach Edmonton tomorrow … and he knew he’d find Cyprian there. He felt it like he always did. Deep in his blood, in his bones … in the core of him where the beast prowled. He would always be linked to Cyprian. A link that he loathed, a link that he hoped to finally sever. And then, maybe, he would finally be free.
Cyprian was probably holed up somewhere, waiting out the month and assessing who to draw into his web as his newest pack member.
His hand knotted into a fist at his side. He had to reach him first. He was closing in. He could taste it. At last. After all these years. He could let nothing get in his way. Nothing and no one.
His gaze drifted back to the motel room as he considered the two females inside, and then his gaze strayed to his vehicle again. It would be a simple matter to leave them. He could make better time without them as they would only slow him down. He could finish Cyprian off and end Aimee’s curse. He didn’t need the girl with him to accomplish that feat.
But what if Cyprian slipped away? Eluded him one more time? Then the girl would